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Dynasties are a natural thing, in fact the very first son to a president became president himself. That was John Quincy Adams. He was the first son born, Washington didn’t have biological children, and John Adams, the second president’s first child born was Nabby Adams, his daughter, and John Quincy was his first born son and he became president too. So at the beginning it was considered a natural thing, but there was strong opposition because he was the son of a president.

In more recent times, the media railed against it and saw it as a corruption of the democratic process. No less than Joseph Pulitzer himself publicly opposed the idea that Robert Todd Lincoln should be elected president. A lot of people thought Robert Todd Lincoln would be elected president. He was the secretary of war under two president and ambassador for the court of St. James and there was a real chance that he could have been elected president, he was extremely wealthy, he was extremely popular, like John F. Kennedy might have been if he’d lived longer.

When presidents or heads of state came to the United States, they would often visit the president and they would slip off and meet Robert Todd Lincoln, like a Bill Gates almost. But there was a fierce opposition to this whole idea. And when Robert Taft was running for president and almost had a chance to be president, that was one of the issues the media raised: we can’t have these dynasties. The dynasties that we are seeing today are an anomaly, they are not the norm. It started out a natural thing, Martin Van Buren’s son John ran for Congress, some thought he would be elected president so it keeps reoccurring, but it keeps getting shot down. Only recently have they started to emerge again.

In general, they’re bad for government. They lead to corruption in many countries of the world. The complaint is that there’s nepotism. That the dictator will give the Coca-Cola franchise to his son, give job to build the big mall to his daughter, let the telephone utility be owned by a brother, this is the complaint in many countries of the world that there is corruption and there are dynasties and families that pass on, North Korea is another prime example where three generations in a row, the leaders come from the same family. So normally, they’re very unhealthy, and that’s why the news media, in the past, has been so vigilant in shutting them down, this is a very unusual period in American history right now.

There’s an unusual reason why we have so many dynasties right now. It’s a rare time, and that’s because dynasties have appeared in both parties. So the natural opposition to dynasties has been eliminated, it’s down. For example, the Clinton dynasty in the Democratic Party, and the Bush dynasty in the Republican Party. So if you’re a Democrat, and you start attacking the Bush dynasty and saying this wasn’t wise and this isn’t fair, you’re likely going to make an enemy by embarrassing the Clintons and they are a major fundraising power, a major political power, and you can’t afford to upset the Clintons.

The same is true in the Republican Party. If you’re in the Republican Party and you start attacking the Clinton dynasty, you’re going to make enemies with the Bush family and they’re a major fundraising machine within the Republican Party. So because these two dynasties appeared at the same time, it has opened the door for the Cuomo dynasty, the Paul dynasty, there’s just no end to it. It’s like the barn door’s open and the horses are running wild. So it’s a very unique time in American history.

It's about name recognition, it’s about money. If you’re part of the dynasty, if you have the same name you already have hundreds of thousands of dollars over your opponent because of name recognition. And you already have tremendous amounts of money. George W. Bush made that quote: "I might get half of my dad’s friends and all of his enemies." He’s trying to make fun of the fact that it didn’t really help to be a Bush, but the fact is it did help to be a Bush.

It may be an imbalance that will go away on its own, I hope. I mean, I hope that eventually when there is no Republican dynasty to speak of then the Republicans will start attacking the Democrats’ dynasty, or the reverse will happen.

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